Ness

Bringing heart to machine learning

Ness Computing came to Moving Brands (named “Trumpet” at the time) with the challenge of creating a story and identity to catapult a cutting-edge recommendation technology to the top of a crowded app marketplace and win a permanent place on user home screens. Our creative business partnership resulted in a total re-brand of the Palo Alto-based technology company, including naming, identity, messaging, web design and app store assets.

Objective

Through intensive workshops, we discovered that the heart of their unique product offering was a deeply personal connection to the user. Moving Brands articulated the user’s preferences and passions as their “ness.”

The concept of uniqueness, likeness, YOUness resonated across both teams and resulted in the short, simple, ownable and intrinsically true name: Ness. From there, the narrative that developed clearly defined both the core values of the brand and the essential promise of its product: Make YOU happen.

Approach

Ness’ identity system was strongly influenced by the strategy behind the name. Moving Brands came up with a distinctive method of describing the unique technology at the heart of the Ness brand and its product: “Likeness” – the percentage likelihood that a user will like something. We created visuals that emphasized the idea of determining what is unique and personal to an individual. Though the technology is highly intelligent, the brand had an eccentric aspect that sought true human connection.

With that in mind, we carefully designed the symbol of the multi-faceted heart and corresponding multi-colored palette to represent the personal nature of the product. It was our aim to develop an identity then enabled expansion into future verticals for the brand. The technical language of the heart is reflected in the typeface, Gridnik, as well as the custom iconography. Photography guidelines were established to create brand consistency and best showcase the real-world experiences that Ness enables.

Results

The most distinct part of the Ness experience is the heart, which is featured in custom loading animations that appear when the app is thinking and calculating the user’s personal recommendations. As well as the UI for the Food vertical, concepts and designs for future offerings were created in anticipation of the company’s expansion into other lifestyle genres.

A beautiful and pared back website featuring immersive, full-screen photography focuses the user on downloading the app while ensuring the human experience of Ness is front and centre.